Consumers of items, such as gemstones, used cars, art, and so on, typically desire certain items that have specific attributes desirable to the consumer. For example, one consumer may wish to buy a gemstone having a high fluorescence attribute, while another does not care about fluorescence.
Many of these types of items have a seemingly unlimited number of possible combinations of attributes. These unlimited combinations of attributes cause providers of these items to present the items in large inventories or databases, in order to provide many desirable options to consumers.
Online searching for items allows consumers to electronically (such as, over the internet) search through databases of items. However, providing an interface or display of all the items in a large database while allowing a user to search and sort the items based on item attributes would be cumbersome and inefficient. Therefore, an interface providing easy sorting and searching of items would have desirable utility.
Note: the headings provided herein are for convenience and do not necessarily affect the scope or interpretation of the invention.
A portion of this disclosure contains material to which a claim for copyright is made. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or patent disclosure (including the Figures) as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but the copyright owner reserves all other copyright rights whatsoever.